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Annex 1: Chronology of Waste Action: Major Events 1996 - 2005
1996
An amendment was made to the Local Government Act 1974 giving territorial authorities responsibility for waste management planning and the effective and efficient management of wastes guided by the waste hierarchy.
The Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act was passed by Parliament.
The Ozone Layer Protection Act was passed by Parliament and Regulations promulgated.
The first Packaging Accord was launched and the Used Oil Recovery Programme began.
1997
The first National Waste Data Report was published.
1998
The 1998/1999 National Landfill Census report was undertaken.
Draft Environmental Performance Indicators for waste, hazardous substances and toxic contaminates were proposed.
1999
The Ministry published proposals for a hazardous wastes policy and consulted widely with local government.
A landfill management programme was established aimed at addressing some of the problems identified in the landfill census.
2000
Work began on the development of a national waste strategy in a joint exercise between central and local government.
The first national Zero Waste Conference took place in Kaitaia and proposals for a national waste minimisation and management strategy were presented at the conference.
2001
Work on the New Zealand Waste Strategy was completed and approved by Cabinet and the National Council of Local Government New Zealand.
The Landfill Management Programme commenced a series of guides to help industry and local authorities enhance landfill performance.
2002
The New Zealand Waste Strategy was launched in March and was followed by a series of regional workshops aimed at engaging local implementation of the strategy.
The first major hazardous waste policy module: Hazardous Waste Guidelines, Identification and Record Keeping (Module 1) was produced.
Work began on developing partnerships with industry to develop schemes to take-back unwanted agricultural containers, silage wrap and electronic waste.
The new Local Government Act 2002 required territorial authorities to complete waste management plans by 30 June 2005.
The Solid Waste Analysis Protocol was developed.
2003
The Reduce Your Rubbish Campaign, a joint central and local government educational campaign, took place. It was based on social marketing techniques and used a range of media including television advertisements.
Industry-led take-back schemes for some paints and mobile phones got underway.
The results of the review and audit of New Zealand landfills, undertaken in 2002, were published and revealed a positive trend in the closure and upgrade of substandard landfills.
The Govt3 programme was launched in November 2003.
2004
Tyre Track, a system for tracking end-of-life tyres, was established.
The second New Zealand Packaging Accord was launched. The Accord involves an agreement between the Government and major industry sectors to cut down on wasteful packaging and reflects principles in the New Zealand Waste Strategy.
A review of targets in the New Zealand Waste Strategy was published indicating that good progress had been made towards many targets.
The second major hazardous waste policy module Hazardous Waste Guidelines - Landfill Waste Acceptance Criteria and Landfill Classification (Module 2) was produced.
The Landfill Full Cost Accounting Guide for New Zealand was released in March 2004.
The first suite of 14 national environmental standards under the Resource Management Act were developed.
Development began on a draft national product stewardship policy designed to underpin industry-led schemes for special wastes.
2005
A stocktake was undertaken of work towards a comprehensive hazardous wastes policy. This showed that many of the elements of the policy framework are in place and directed attention to what still needs to be done.
A discussion paper to develop a draft national policy on product stewardship was released for public comment.
A pilot programme ('WasteTRACK') for an electronic tracking system for liquid and hazardous wastes was put in place.
Work is underway to consider a national environmental standard for cleaning up contamination in land.
Work is underway to consider a national environmental standard for the safe application of biosolids to land.
